A relativist can believe things, state things, affirm things. He (or indeed she) also recognises that he may be mistaken, and that his opinion is just that. It may be better backed up by logic, by observation, by the witnessing of others, by evidence... it may even be backed up by natural law, inescapable physical truth, in which case it's rather foolish to doubt it. I'm not relativist about gravity, for example.
But I don't claim the right to dictate others' feelings, beliefs or wishes, and don't claim truth overriding them.
I recognize that I may be mistaken. My point is that being mistaken about moral issues has meaning. To clarify, I think there is objective truth, and I have strong opinions about what that objective truth is, but I recognize the possibility that my opinion may be wrong. I even recognize the possibility that my opinion about gravity might be wrong. The possibility might be considered so low that I don't have to worry about it normally but its possible that none of the evidence of my senses has any correlation with actual reality.
I don't claim the right to dictate other's feelings, beliefs or wishes but I might state that someone elses feelings or beliefs are incorrect.
Tim |
